September 20, 2012 ~ Bad Company Corrupts

Do not be misled:

“Bad company corrupts good character.”

1 Corinthians 15:33

Thoughts~

Imagine with me that there is a path with a fork in the road; one direction leads you and a large crowd into areas you are not comfortable in, people who don’t know the Lord and situations you know you should not be part of. The other direction points to the Lord, His word, His counsel.

You know you need to take the godly direction and yet, there is the fear of being left out of other people’s lives. I call those people the “they.” Do they matter more to you than God?

I found myself in this very situation before. It’s really a dilemma for people like me who love to be around other people I already know. I didn’t want to exclude God or go against Him and yet if I went the way of the crowd, I would be because they were either not believers or were very misguided believers at best.

They belittled my faith behind my back. They did not use the word of God as their standard. They enticed me with things that were not part of God’s plan for my life. They even made up false doctrines from what they thought God should say but not what He actually had to say. So why in the world would I . . . any of us . . . even want to be friends with the “theys?” The answers are habit and a lack of trust.

We often have a habit of hanging out with people from work, the neighborhood, soccer games at our kid’s schools. And there is not a thing wrong with being friendly and warm to these folks. It’s when they are our main staple of friendship that can corrupt us because we slowly start to mimic them or follow their lead. Or we demonstrate a quiet denial of our faith. We certainly don’t walk our walk of faith in front of them because we don’t want to offend them.  And yet they offend us constantly.

The lack of trust in this situation is not believing that God will bring believers into your life that are fun, happy, encouraging and who offer you strength and prayer. Trust God and trust me: He will restore your life with amazing friendships that glorify Him. I have friends, lots of little groups of friends. Most are believers and a few are not. The ones who are not I care deeply about and they are on my constant prayer list. But I do not follow them down any paths that take me away from the Lord. We pretty much, in silent agreement, hang out at the fork; enjoying what we have in common but when it comes to the important issue of faith, we go our separate ways.

This path that you know you should choose will make a difference in your spiritual walk. You can almost hear the Holy Spirit beckoning to you and yet, there is still a tinge of anxiety.  It’s called being a human being. The good news is that the Lord will hold your hand even when others won’t. He is our ETERNITY (“they” are not).

Action~

I have been writing this blog for a few days and had to cut out ¾ of it.  It was turning into a mini book. I wanted to just toss it out or save it for someday in the future when I could work on it at leisure. However, the Holy Spirit kept prompting me to complete it and post it. My guess is that someone really needs to know that God will jump into action for them, providing friendships that will be a blessing in their lives! He really will open new doors and windows for you when you choose the path that leads to Him, to His will, to His Word.

Prayer~

Thank You Lord for showing us the way to go, for leading us away from temptations and blessing us with good relationships.

Trusting in the Lord,

Becky